Posts Tagged ‘jim farly’

Ford of Europe Pres. Jim Farley during the Geneva unveiling of the maker's new Focus RS.

Ford Motor Co. may finally be turning the corner after years of losses in its European operations. But while things are generally moving in the right direction, Ford’s new European President Jim Farley warns that the carmaker is facing what he calls the big “squeeze.”

The Detroit maker, like crosstown rival General Motors, has been struggling for years to turn things around in Europe. Though it had hoped to approach breakeven last year, Ford still posted a $433 million European loss during the final quarter of 2014, and $1.1 billion for the full year.

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It remains to be seen if it can meet its target this year. But there’s clear momentum, stressed Farley, during an interview in Geneva. “We’re going to make progress, despite the headwinds, in our financials.”

Ford may be an also-ran in China, but it plans to catch up quickly with a range of new products.

The astonishing growth of the Chinese appetite for new cars and trucks is showing no sign of slowing down, good news for the scores of automakers gathered for this year’s Shanghai Motor Show.

The industry saw sales surge by 32%, last year –after a 2009 gain of 46% — to a global record of 18 million vehicles, leading makers foreign and domestic to announce billions of dollars in investments – and scores of new products – during a media preview that has drawn an estimated 10,000 journalists and top executives from around the globe.

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“I know this is the most exciting auto show I’ve ever been too,” said Jim Farley, Ford Motor Co. executive in charge of the company’s global marketing effort.

Farley compared the energy unleashed by the show’s opening day to the excitement created by General Motors’ once popular Autoramas, a highlight of the U.S. car boom of the 1950s.